7 August 2009
Windsor Station Sale Complete
Windsor Station - Date/photographer
unknown.
A wistful milestone perhaps but I don't feel it is a sad
one.
It is actually a good thing.
Windsor Station is protected permanently and will be in the hands of a company that manages office space rather than a company that
had to run a real estate operation as a sideline to its core business.
The capital realized can be invested in the railway.
Most people on this Yahoo group are happy when the railway gets investment (renewal of infrastructure, more and longer sidings, double
track, more customers and traffic, new engines, etc) and upset when it doesn't (rotting ties, crummy ballast, speed restrictions,
locomotive breakdowns, hours spent waiting for meets, or waiting for power, etc).
I don't mean to downplay emotive aspects of this transaction.
I have been associated with that building in one way or another for almost all my life (beginning with the departure of my first train
ride at the age of three) and first worked there 36 years ago.
I've been the internal guru on the building's history and that won't change, any more than will the history itself.
Before the property was redeveloped in the 1990s I knew my way around the hidden nooks and crannies of that vast
three-dimensional rabbit warren better than most.
I have studied countless plans of it over its long history of alterations right back to the original construction.
And I've known more people than I can possibly recall who have worked in most departments, many of whom shared stories of the
building, the work (and other things) that went on, and earlier characters they had known.
And I'm familiar with other stories about the building and its reputation as the august heart and soul of a company exercising
legendary power and influence on the national scene and around the world.
So when ownership of the building passes outside the company it's easy to feel a sense that something has come to an end.
There are always changes and every change marks the end of something major or minor.
In this case the real change occurred long ago.
The railway grew to an empire of symbiotic properties and later a conglomerate of increasingly unrelated interests controlled by a
tiny holding company function (across the street), then returned to its original identity when the financial markets changed their
view of how large companies should be structured.
For most of this time they needed large amounts of office space in Montreal and occupied other buildings near Windsor Station, or
wherever else they could find them, despite some transfers to Toronto and elsewhere.
In the penultimate stage of this journey, following complicated changes within the railway itself, and in the larger corporate
structure, most of the then-remaining corporate components debarked for Calgary.
Windsor Station was suddenly too large, even after the loss of two newer wings to the recent redevelopment.
The remaining functions retreated to a new core area and got used to their new status as a regional outpost in the former
headquarters.
Despite the complete internal modernization in the 1980s, and the changes to the public areas in the 1990s, it was difficult to find
tenants for the surplus space.
The empty spaces simply emphasized how much had been lost.
Even if CP continued to own the building it would still be a regional office in a former headquarters.
The heart and soul has moved on.
The sale itself doesn't actually make much difference to the building, since CP remains in it.
This was an important part of the deal, since having a prime tenant was one of the features that made the building attractive to
buyers.
The heritage is an attraction, and CP maintains artifacts, artwork, and photographs within the building to emphasize this.
And the terms of the sale include designation and protection of the building under the Quebec Cultural Property act, to replace its
designation as a Heritage Railway Station after the sale.
So the building is transferred to professional property managers who are bound by strict laws to protect its heritage, the railway
remains in its ancestral offices and continues to operate trains at the other end of the property, and money is freed up to be used
for railway purposes rather than being tied to bricks and mortar in the commercial office rental field.
That is really better than the alternative.
Don Thomas.
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